"Absolutely not. No human being should do his duty under any conceivable circumstances. You see, there are two kinds, the pleasurable ones, and the painful ones. Pleasurable duties are done, not because they are duties, but because they are pleasurable. So they do not count. And a painful duty can not be a duty or it would not be painful. My idea is, that there must be a happy adjustment of every necessity, so when a duty is painful, it is the wrong adjustment. You and your father-in-law are giving yourselves pain because it is the wrong adjustment." "It sounds very clever." "It is the only beautiful plan of life," said Eveley modestly. "And then we would not have to live with father at all?" "Most certainly not." "It certainly is a glorious theory," said the bride enthusiastically. "You explain it to Dody, will you? He is positively death on duty, especially when it is painful. He'd do his duty if it killed him and me, burned the house down and started a revolution." "I have to go now," said Eveley. "Excuse me for rushing you off, but I am late already. I'll explain it to you another time." Very skilfully she piloted her caller out the window and down the rustic steps. "Remember this," she said as they reached the bottom. "As long as duty is painful, it is not a duty and can not be. Now find another adjustment. That is the end of it." And she started on a quick trot for the corner. "But father will be here this afternoon just the same," called Mrs. Severs after her in mournful tones. Being very businesslike, Eveley made a set of notes about the case on her way down-town. Liver and cabbage. Raw onions. Smelly pipe. Red-whiskered friend. Pinochle. Hates dimples. (I'll keep my left side turned his way.) Money enough to live on. Crazy about Dody--christened Andrew. Dody believes in duty. "Of course it is up to me to save them," she decided cheerfully, and was quite happy at the prospect of an engagement in her campaign. "But I can't neglect getting my car, even to save human nature from its duty," she added. And then her mind wandered from the duties of brides, to the pleasures of young motorists. Her plan of expenditure was most lucid. She would invest eighteen hundred dollars in a car, and spend two hundred for clothes "to sustain the illusion." Nolan did not understand exactly what she meant by that, but on general principles was convinced it was something reprehensible and sneered at it. The other five hundred was to be deposited in the bank as a guarantee for future tires and gasoline and repairs. Nolan said that according to his information it would be wiser to buy a second-hand car for five hundred, and keep the eighteen hundred for tires and gas and repairs. But Nolan was a struggling young lawyer--even more struggling than young--and the girls were accustomed to his pessimistic murmurs, and gave them no heed at all.